Current Affairs for IAS Exams

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 10 January 2017

Her son was three years old when she realised that there was no school she could send him to. British and American schools were too expensive and she didn’t want to send him to a local school.
That prompted Zeenat Jafri to start the second Indian school in Saudi Arabia — International Indian School — in 1982 with her husband.
She was among the 30 people feted for her achievement during the PravasiBharatiya Divas, when the PravasiSamman Awards were given away by President Pranab Mukherjee.
Another person of Indian origin who was recognised with the award was Ariful Islam, coordinator and nodal point in the Embassy of India in Libya.
The most recent episode he was involved was in the rescue of three abducted Indians from the IS in a dramatic operation in 2016 from the deep Libyan deserts.
The event saw double the number of awardees as it was being held after an interval of two years.
Among the other prominent winners of the award were Portugal Prime Minister Antonio Luis Santos da Costa, Labour Member of the European Parliament representing the West Midlands Neena Gill, British politician Priti Patel.

The recently-released data by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and the Customs show a 50 per cent jump in smuggling of Indian, foreign and counterfeit currency notes over the previous years.
The data also reveals a 100 per cent rise in smuggling of narcotics, electronic, fabrics, and aircraft parts.
Nearly Rs. 36.87 crore of foreign currency notes was seized in 2016, as opposed to Rs. 25.09 crore in 2015.
The seizure of Indian notes was to the tune of Rs. 6.85 crore in 2016 as against Rs. 3.71 crore in 2015, while the seizure of counterfeit Indian notes rose to Rs. 2.72 crore in 2016 from Rs. 1.24 crore in the previous year.
The biggest haul was reported at the IGI Airport on January 5 when two passengers were caught with Rs. 1 crore of foreign notes.
The recent seizures of gold and currency notes in Mumbai, Delhi, Goa and Tamil Nadu have all been based on specific inputs targeted at syndicates operating in Dubai.
However, gold smuggling post demonetisation has in fact upped substantially starting of 2017, and the jump will be reflected in next year’s figures.

Ashley Tellis, a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, could be named the next U.S. Ambassador to India.
Mr. Tellis was not available for a response, but had last week declined to comment on speculations about him joining the administration.
Mr. Trump has said that Ambassadors who are political appointees will not be given a grace period after he takes over as President on January 20th. The current U.S. Ambassador to India, Richard Verma, is a political appointee.
Mumbai-born Tellis was a key figure in negotiations for the India-U.S. nuclear deal and is a proponent of stronger ties between the two countries, particularly in the area of defence cooperation.
He has served in the U.S. embassy in Delhi as an adviser to the Ambassador. He has also been on the National Security Council.
Mr. Tellis has good relations with both the Democrats and the Republicans and, if selected, could easily be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.